


Confident

by FeatherQuilt88



Series: The Amber Dragon Anthology [15]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fire Lord Zuko, Post-Canon, Romantic Feels, Romantic Fluff, reassurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 03:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21190550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatherQuilt88/pseuds/FeatherQuilt88
Summary: Zuko wonders if his scar looks ugly to Jin.





	Confident

**Author's Note:**

> For readers new to my "Amber Dragon" fanfic series--Zuko has started calling Iroh "Dad" now.

When Zuko was a young, banished prince, he had seen his scar as a mark of shame--as a physical reminder of his lost honor. In the years to come, he would grow to see it in a less-shameful way--as a reminder of how he had _stood up_ for what was honorable in the first place. And how had continued on and found his honor again, in spite of being hurt.

But before he was married, Zuko had never really cared whether people saw his scar as something _visually repulsive_ or not. Yet now, suddenly, one evening, as he looks in the mirror... he feels less confident about it.

"Jin?" the Fire Lord's husky voice peeps, uncharacteristically timid. "Do you... do you think my scar is ugly?"

"Why, _no,_ Zuko!" Jin leaps up from the bed, her green nightrobe fluttering. She hugs her husband's shoulders. "It's..." she hesitates herself, for a split second--not out of insincerity, but out of considering her words.

It would sound almost flippant of the trauma and abuse behind that scar, to praise it as something "dashing" or "handsome." Yet it would also be untrue, in Jin's case, to claim that it is something "ugly," which she only "ignores" out of love. --She _would_ have done so, yes, if she _had_ found it ugly! But she never really has.

"It's just another _part_ of you, sweetheart," Jin finally settles. "And... and you know? It did catch my eye, the first day I saw you, there in Pao's old teashop in Ba-Sing-Se." She touches the scar softly, now. "It made me wonder what had happened to you."

Zuko cracks a tiny smile. "It... it led you to me, then?" He gazes affectionately at his wife. Just as suddenly, his smile falls, the anxiety taking over again. "But... what if I _hadn't_ had this scar? Would you have... would you have found me as interesting then?"

Jin squeezes Zuko's shoulders tighter, reassuring him. "Of _course_ I would have! You would always have been my handsome prince, either way," she grins.

Zuko manages a grin too, his confidence restored. Jin slowly slips her arms back off him, and plops back into their bed. Then Zuko blinks--not in anxiety, now, but in confusion. "But--but you never _knew_ me as a prince!" he calls back over to Jin. "When we first met in Ba-Sing-Se, you thought Unc--Dad--and I were circus performers! And when we found each other again, here in Capital City, I was already Fire Lord!"

Jin's giggle is audible, now, as she swats Zuko with a pillowcase. "Come and sleep, you royal juggling turtleduck."


End file.
